Website Not Converting

[CET]

I helped a client build a new website for her Low Carb business. She currently has a website that does fairly well in sales, but it's u-g-l-y! Also, her webmaster for that website is worthless. He's almost never around (one request has been sitting in his inbox for 2 months now), and when he is around, he's a complete jerk. I helped this client build a new site in the hopes of building up enough income to sustain her business so she can dump her worthless webmaster.

Her current site, VivaLowCarb.com (http://www.VivaLowCarb.com) is a almost a $1M company, so the market clearly exists.

I built a new site for her, LowCarb-R-Us.com (http://www.LowCarb-R-Us.com) (the domain was her idea, not mine!), which looks WAY better than her current site. I made it clear that this site should not be full of ugly fonts of varying colors, sizes, background colors, etc. The descriptions should have helpful information, not obnoxious nonsense like, "THIS IS THE BEST PRODUCT EVER!!!!!!!"

She agreed to all of my suggestions and the site so far is a complete flop! I did a lot of SEO work, which should start showing results in the next few months, so in the mean time we're running PPC. They currently get the same amount of traffic. Out of almost 800 visitors, we've had 2 purchases. I've never had such terrible conversion rates. Any ideas on what's going on? Why does the website that does everything wrong do hundreds of sales a month while the site that is "by the book" has almost no sales at all?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Chris

[kgun]

Any ideas on what's going on? Why does the website that does everything wrong do hundreds of sales a month while the site that is "by the book" has almost no sales at all?

I personally assume, site age is the main reason and it is a risky business.

I agree that the design of the new site is better, but content could have been better.

[rah]

I went ahead and added the links for you to your original post to help you out.

[CET]

I went ahead and added the links for you to your original post to help you out.

Thanks! :D

I decided that I'd go around and be helpful for at least 10 posts so that I can add links to my own posts. That's the name of the game; being helpful, right? ;)

[Paul B]

Is it only the conversion rate that's the problem?

Duplicate content could be an issue if the new site is not ranking. Some of the products on both sites have the same description text. The original will always win. Presumably the equal traffic at the old site is organic and the new mostly ppc. This might be a reason.

The new site carries the valid XHTML logos without links. I checked a few pages and they did not validate. This won't affect the conversion rate though!

The new site's left menu disappears on the product pages and the only way from one product to another is the browser back button or the breadcrumb trail. Not so user friendly.

The home page of the new site is crying out for keywords on the home page. And does the average bagel buyer bother about: "...128 bit SSL encryption to keep your private information safe."

Sorry though, I don't see a reason for the disparity. What is the conversion rate of the original site??

[CET]

Traffic is fine, we've got plenty of it. The conversion rate for the old site is a little over 4%. The conversion rate for the new site is 0.3%

These are the most popular ads running, and the links all go to their own landing pages.


Sugar Free Chocolates
Low Carb & Diabetic Friendly
Chocolate, Fudge, Dark Chocolate
www.LowCarb-R-Us.com (http://www.lowcarb-r-us.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=chocolates&x=0&y=0)


Low Carb Breads
As low as 1 Net Carb
Oat, Cinnamon Raisin, and More ...
www.LowCarb-R-Us.com/Bread.html (http://www.lowcarb-r-us.com/breads-and-tortillas/breads.html?p=1)


Low Carb Pasta
Dreamfields, Al Dente, Shirataki
Spaghetti, Lasagna, Angel Hair, etc
www.LowCarb-R-Us.com (http://www.lowcarb-r-us.com/pasta-and-soups/pasta.html)



I'm starting to wonder if this market is reseller loyal. They run newsletters and get great responses from them, so I suspect that as a possibility.

[AussieDomainer]

If it isn't a silly question can't you redevelop the original domain
After all your client owns it , not the bum "webmaster"
If that is the domain with client loyalty and traffic, it would seem to be the only and correct solution.

Plus Lowcarbs-r-us sounds so SPAMMY
VivaLowCarb at least sound CLASSY

[SnerdeyWebs]

Add products to the home page. Add a new page for why shop here, but get it off the home page.

Have a friend here and there do a test purchase, send them the money to do it whatever. That would surely help to see if getting credit for sales. Traffic does not mean anything if they are not targeted buyers.

Agree big time that the site is crying for keywords ;)

[jameshills]

I would be interested in seeing any abandoned cart issues ... one I think I LIKE on the old site is that it takes you directly to the cart when you add a product instead of just putting it in the cart and letting it be.

That being said however, it is a LOT easier to add items to the new site than it is the old one so you might have mixed results there.

[morestar]

Good suspection - om ah hum padma sedi hum - I am Awake.

You may not like my response at the moment but I went though the checkout process and felt more comfortable with the old site - just the look of it felt easier and a little more trust-worthy.

I guess at this point my question would follow Barefoottech in: if the current site is getting more conversions then what's the problem?

Plus the homepage of the new site looks really REALLY dry...almost like an informational site rather than a store-front.

Lastly, the checkout page of the old site, once the user adds a product to their cart, they are directed to their cart page which directs them to "checkout" but on the new site once a product is added to the cart they are brought back to the product page...less chance of a conversion.

The carts I've worked with and have seen usually always bring the user to their cart page there they can easily checkout...getting them to check out is really important...

[DesignsOnline]

The new site slooks flat, dull and boring, at least the old site had a bit of "life" about it.
You need to make it a bit more dynamic.

[ArthurNYC]

Everyone here is analyzing the traffic, he said he is getting 800 visitors a day before and now, PPC or natural ... traffic should be relatively comparable.

Not sure who told you the new site looks better but it does not function better. Guarantee huge abandon rate. Add to cart uses the Amazon function where the cart follows you on the right side of the screen.

New cart is requiring login and if you dont have one, then you need to click another button to create one. Old cart, you have your choice right up front with no more clicks.

The new site there is nothing drawing your attention when you get there ... at least the old one draws your attention.

I bet the abandon rate is sky high on the new site ... Add To Cart take them to the cart (especially for an unknown site like this). Option for new account or just checkout should be on the same page, no additional clicks.

3 Clicks
1. add to cart
2. checkout
3. submit

You have too many clicks in your checkout process. Just a quick analysis.

Arthur

[explorador]

This things are complex but I can tell you a few things.

The old domain and site gets X type of visitors via search engines, the new one only via PPC. I bet those are diff kinds of people. I don't have any doubts of your SEO work, but as said before the content could have been better.

Per example the old site says "WE'VE GOT BREAD!" and other texts that invite to read and buy, mostly to sell, those lines are selling lines. On the other hand your new site doesn't have such lines to action.

Why don't you try for a week your new design with the old content??? I bet old visitors come and don't get it as the same site, perhaps confused. I would.

[cinebiz]

Just a few (lengthy) thoughts.

Yes, customers might be loyal to the other site, and that's a big issue. Essentially, you set up a competitor to her old site.

Also, I realize people said that the new site looked better, but from my perspective, there are a couple problems. The colors of the old logo look like the Italian flag - as in, "great, tasty food" and the new logo looks like a pill - as in, "low carb foods may not be fun, but they're good medicine."

The links on the left look much better, and hooray for your getting rid of the un-helpful exclamations like "this is great!"

I think the colors should have been pumped up on the new site. The milder green is a bit poopy, compared to the old site's happy green. Also, the food packages image on the old site was more dynamic, and more appealing. Try a somewhat less linear and boxed-in image of the food packages.

I don't know why the site isn't converting as well, except that it still feels a little flat. Gives me the image of a dicey supplier, for some reason, despite the nicer links down the left side.

Perhaps a more sweeping decoration across the top would help. I saw an article on site design, which said most sites are designed to appeal to a male sensibility - square shapes, linear layout. With a low-carb food site, you have to appeal to a woman who's into good food, and hoping to cheat the calories. Try a more "Jenny Craig" approach, maybe add a photo of a healthy (but not stringy) woman, and it might convey the confidence that customers need to see in order to feel like purchasing. Right now, I'm not "feelin' the love" for the layout. It's getting there, but not quite yet.

I'm speaking strictly from an advertising perspective, as that's what I do for most of my day. So that's the context for the above.

Best of luck with this - I know how frustrating these things can be...
:)

[Vetofunk]

Hi Chris,

I think you will need to get more specific. If you have a good Analytics program running, you should be able to see where the problems are appearing. It is from visitors coming to the homepage, product pages, are people leaving during the cart process?

I run analytics on all my client's site and what kind of data you get from there can usually lead you to the problem.

I see you are using Magento (good choice). Couple things I would recommend:

1/ When you add an item to the cart, direct the user to the shopping cart. Sometimes visitors don't get that it was added. The other site does this.

2/ You are making them register. Give them the option of checking out as a guest. It's easy to do this in Magento. The other site doesn't do this either, but it's checkout process is different.

3/ They don't get to see the shipping charge until further in checkout. Possibly give them and idea beforehand. The other site offers flat rate shipping.

Hope that helps.

Vetofunk

[nickhas]

I was kind of turned off by the new site's home page. It's like a big empty space and it doesn't look like a store front. It seems like that area could be dressed up with featured products or at least something more visually appealing.

You should definitely look at user behavior on the site and see where it is you're losing them.

Also, your home page bullet points are half hidden under the menu in Firefox 3.5.7.

[astro]

Nice site, could be it's something really simple like the site name? Lets face it, you were fast to disassociate with it, as I would be.

This maybe totally off key but on a personal level I am always a bit dubious with sites that have used something similar to another companies tag or business name. My attitude is... Oh Yes?? In my early days in sales we were taught everyone has pet hates. Be prepared to lose 10% of your sales if you have a beard, be prepared to lose 5% if you wear glasses and 20% if they are sunglasses and you don't take them off when talking and 50% if those glasses have a mirror finish. 10% if you are male and below 5ft 5inches tall.....the list goes on!

Maybe the domain name is the issue here.

/astro

[adtastichosting]

Is it only the conversion rate that's the problem?

The home page of the new site is crying out for keywords on the home page. And does the average bagel buyer bother about: "...128 bit SSL encryption to keep your private information safe."


That would be my take on this. I didn't go thru each page of the site but just looked at the two home pages. The original site that you refer to as being rather crappy but also saying works with respect to conversions I think works because it has "Information" that is likely relevant to the potential customer at least it makes me feel as if it is more relevant somehow. The new site home page, is not at all relevant to me if I am interested in the subject because it doesn't seem to talk about the subject just whines to me about why I should buy something from the site with respect to ssl and all that stuff that the average consumer probably doesn't understand or give a flip about. At least that is how it comes off to me. Something about the center column layout and the red text "we've got bread" and that kind of thing seems to be more appealing to me. SO my suggestion would be to maybe add some more text to the front page of the new site and also change the font and color the old site looks crisper. Relevancy is the key when it comes to conversions and also to search engine rankings. ANd the new site, the home page doesn't feel relevant somehow. Needs more text.

I have a customer with a similar situation at least with respect to different websites selling the same thing and one is converting 4 to 1 to the other. The one converting is bloated, clunky and really poorly designed and has been built on and built on ntil in the clients own words it is like the "winchester house". But it converts way better than the slick, really lean site that is much more professional. Why? Maybe it is the fact that it is loaded with (cluttered) garbage text on each page but said garbage text is related to the products being sold and their average customer isn't interested in technical design or bells and whistles and doesn't want to feel like they are in Nordstrum but feels more secure on a site that makes them feel like they are in the old cluttered up general store. Something like that anyways.

So, suggestion might be, clutter it up with relevant text.

[Dinghus]

OMG! The 2nd site is horrible. No wonder you have no conversions. Who said it is by the book? The 1st site has a clean look and feel. It puts products right up front. The menu you have is horrible. Throw it out. Go simple. Those rolloever-popup blah blah javascript menus are crap. Get rid of it and go simple.

The first site made me want to hang around a bit and explore. The new site made me leave. Primarily the menu. It was a pain in the ass to get to items on it since it overlapped the items under it. I had to mouse UP to get to things.

The whole 2nd site looks sloppy and thrown together. Sorry. But you should have stuck with a winner. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

And the name. Gad. Get rid of any "r-us" names. Especially since it is not grammatically correct either.
Low Carb is singular "r-us" is plural. Should be "LowCarbs-r-us" if you are going that route. I know, owner picked it. Do her a favor and beg her to get rid of it.

Now if you get a site that is actually good, do a redirect from the current site so you get the loyal customers.

As much as we all love to put bells and whistles in, usually simpler is better.

[Dinghus]

Okay, on the first site I think if you change some of the formatting for text it would look better. Get rid of the "!!!!" after prices. Things like that. Otherwise, make the 2nd site look like that one and act like it and you will probably convert more!!!!! lol

[Tarzanna77]

I agree, while the 1st site is kindof garish in it's use of colors, at least it has some "pop" to it. The new site doesn't.

One of my pet peeves with websites is forcing me to register with them before I can order. I will leave IMMEDIATELY and find a site that doesn't force the issue.

The home has GOT to have photos of products. Featured monthly specials. Best sellers, Whatever, get some darn photos on that page!

And I also agree with the poster who said you're selling to women, (for the most part, yes you probably are unless you have stats to prove otherwise from the old site) Sounds silly, but yes, adding a picture of a healthy looking woman enjoying some of the low-carb food might help. It helps to personalize the site (from a womans perspective) and makes it more "warm and inviting"

And the domain has GOT to GO. It's just awful.

The overall green theme reminds me of "environmental" or eco friendly. I guess some low-carbers may be crunchy like that, but I don't think it's the main target market. At least that's what I think of when I see an all-green site. But that may just be me.

The "Why shop here" stuff... Doesn't matter unless you're giving it away for free. Put all that junk on an "about us" page and add some real information to the home page. However, if you are having a shipping special or something, add that to the home page (maybe a special burst or something) women love to SAVE money even if they spend money they weren't planning to. We're weird like that. :-P

[mjd360]

I have to sympathise. I have a site that gains around 50,000 visitors a month. It used to convert around 250 sales from these visitors. I recently tried to make the site look more polished and professional and in the process started to lose sales. A competitor of mine that has a terrible looking site is buying 50,000 visitors on PPC. He is paying more than I am making and so I guess he is converting more and more. I see the comments regarding keywords on the home page. If you are getting the same amount of visitors, then its the conversion rate you are worried about. Are the orders from the old site repeat orders where those customers arent registered with the new one?

If posssible I would I would redirect to the old site temporarily to see if the conversion increases. If it does, then make small changes to test. If sales do not improve, you could just find that its the current cllimate thats affecting you.

[cocoon]

Other then what's already been said, I'd have another go at your landing pages. A few sentences at the top explaining the benefits of the products listed versus standard stuff, something about them tasting great etc.

Your chocolates landing page is just a search results page and I'd change that do a more user friendly one tailor made to show the products - the title of 'search reults' is a little off-putting for me. I also thought the way the product were listed alphabetically wasn't great as it looks like there's little choice - on chocolates for example almost all of the first page just shows one brand, when there are more to choose from - I'd list the categories in a different way to get a much better mix of products on the first page, especially the top half, to show the variety and level of choice.

[conortreacy]

Like everyone else here has said, there's a lot to be changed on the NEW site for it to be "better". Personally, if someone came to me with the 2nd site and asked for a redesign, I'd make it like the first one ;)

Some key things that are missing on the 2nd site
1) product on the home page - the text is a waste of space currently
2) Phone number - the 1st site has a number right there to call - the 2nd site, I couldn't find it anywhere, not even in Customer Service section
3) Navigation plays a big part. Sure you can get to products easier on the 2nd site, but I prefer the first.
4) Logo - needs help
5) Contact information (again) in the footer - you need it
6) Mailing list should be prominent.

While you may not like the 1st site, obviously the traffic and customers do. You need to cater to those customers. The second site does nothing to SELL me on why I should buy there - having an SSL Certificate is not a selling point - that's a mandatory part of doing online sales.

[zenfort]

Do your analytics give you a good idea where the customers are coming from?
Another possibility is that a good number of people are finding the old site through recommendations.. When I've done research for a product I would like to buy, I check into forums and user reviews on sites and see what/where people are recommending, are safe (don't get additional spam after purchase), ship fresh product etc.. If a good percentage of the old sites people are coming from forums. blogs, user reviews etc. that could be a big factor.
You only get that kind of following over time and social marketing.
namaste

[claybutler]

Yeah, I have to agree, the original site has a better shopping experience. I really like how it shows me I added it to the cart. On the new site there's no clear indication that you added the item. It looks like the new cart uses Magento. You can change that in the admin I believe so the you are taken to the cart every time you add an item. The old site is more festive as well. The new site is kind of depressing.

The original colors are better. Sure it's kind of ticky-tacky, but low carb items are kind of tick-tacky anyway. The whole dieting world is ticky-tacky.

However, you're still comparing apple to oranges. To do a true conversion test you should have every visitor to the original site either see the new or the old design. Then you can compare. Right now you are comparing a new site with no established traffic to an old established site. With a simple script you could push 50% of the visitors to the new design and 50% to the old. That would be a more accurate test but still not perfect as return customers will be a bit shocked to get a new design.

However, the old shopping cart is so much better that I assume you'd still get the same results.

[wpriley]

A couple of thoughts:

1) If the prior site's business is, say, 90% repeat business; then the two conversion rates may actually be similar as the new site has few return customers.

2) To the degree the search function function is important in getting visitors to a product of interest, the old site is better. The old search offers filters by category, price and manufacturer (not available on the new site) and the presented results with three products per line can be reviewed with less scrolling compared to the new site. More importantly, my test search for "raspberry" on both sites located 21 items on the old site and only 11 on the new site ... something bad wrong here.

3) I agree with the other comments on the new site's bland home page and it's potentially negative domain name.

4) Ditto on phone number visibility; this is a proven turn-off if it's not readily apparent in multiple site locations. Potential customers like the assurance that there are real people available behind a site's facade. Adding a "live chat" function helps in this regard and demonstrably increases both conversion rates and average order size.

5) I DON'T necessarily agree with the comments on taking a visitor right to the checkout page after adding an item to the cart. This is a good approach if you're selling expensive items like a big screen TV but an annoyance on a site offering numerous low cost items where a typical purchase is composed of multiple items as I expect is the case here.

I hope this helps.

[Weedy Lady]

I totally agree with the comments about the appearance of the new design. Hardly ever have I seen anything as boring. I would leave immediately. In fact, I did. The old site is messy - yes, but it's attractive and has "call to action" items on the home page.

I do a lot of food shopping on line and it is all for health food type items (except for my Vivani candy bars). When a site does not list ALL the ingredients for each item I go elsewhere. The old version of the site has descriptions but most products do not have ingredients lists.

A bright, exciting home page, a great shopping cart, listing ingredients, a great site search function and ease of checkout..........that is what is needed. Look at Amazon. It's crowded. It's sometimes a bit messy looking. It's unbelievably successful. And I'll bet their conversion rate is better than 4%.

Throw that book away. Do what works for site visitors.

[Dinghus]

Ahhh. Split testing is always good. But how to deal with repeat customers? The thing I've found to do is put a link on there that says "If you are a returning customer and prefer the old layout, click here" Have it go to a page that explains why the change and ask for their input. If they still want to go to the old layout, take them there. And NOTE how many go back to the old site or tryout the new site.

[simonm]

The major issue I guess is why isn't anybody buying stuff from the new site (yours) when the old site retains what appears to be a great conversion rate.

New site, the call to action is: Diabetes, 128 bit ssl blah blah

Old Site: We have Bagels! Its Fast, Its Safe, Its Easy, You're not alone (That last phrase is great!) ...

Now, which one will get my custom?

I really am unsurprised at the difference in customer take up. I would suggest replicate the old site onto the new domain and see if the conversion rates match. then you will know which site the customers prefer.

As to your comment : not obnoxious nonsense like, "THIS IS THE BEST PRODUCT EVER!!!!!!!" If that's what sells stuff, if that's what your customer's respond to then its not nonsense!

[mays]

The first thing I notice on the old site is the feature image which displays some of the products and the toll-free number. What does this say to me? Someone I can call (customer service).

The mailing list is missing, if you've got new products I know I'll receive a newsletter.

On the homepage give me basic info on what you have to offer me. Do you offer discounts, special ordering?

Where is the help or contact us on the header? Who says everyone looks down at the footer?

What about best sellers, featured products, new arrivals? Sometimes people buy what others are buying or buy what you feature to them.

Also showing the products split in rows will probably help just like the old site. Take Amazon for instance and/or check out other competing websites who are offering the same type of products.

Hope my suggestions give you a little insight.

[nipplecharms1]

As a fat guy that need to cut carbs, I would buy from the first site. period.

Everyone has given you great feedback here. TAKE IT! Ask for specifics if you have to as EVERYONE here has the experience you require.

I will just affirm what has been said. Tweek the old site a little if you like. She owns it no? Download the site (if that is possible), make your changes and upload (if that is possible.)

Most people, me included, would kill for a 4% conversion rate, day in day out.

Good luck.

Michael

PS, I do like the original's site "Italian" look as Cinebiz pointed out. it make me hungry for all those BAD carbs! lol

[deepsand]

Never tinker with success, particularly just because you think something is ugly.

Users don't care about ugly; they care about simple functionality.

The "ugly" site's home page not only provides much more useful information than does that of the new, but also more functionality, by providing calls-to-action that are lacking on the latter.

Additionally, aside from the navigational menu, the "ugly" site is physically more readable.

So called "experts" continue to tell me the the Penn State Ticket Man's site is "ugly," primitive and wholly wanting for lack of SEO. In the mean, Steve and I just laugh all the way to the bank while reading e-mails, or taking telephone calls, thanking us for the simple and easy to use site!

[morestar]

Never tinker with success, particularly just because you think something is ugly.


Plus the first site isn't ugly at all...

[NJ]

IMHO both sites could use a trained graphic designer. Both sites are boxy. I'm not a graphic designer, but I know when I need one - most of the time!

Who's going to read all the text in the middle? Yah, we are all in love with our words, but user testing shows that people don't read it on the front page (Source: CS476 User Interface Design) especially when it's laid out like that. Take the news sites as a design example - sound bites. This is why I use a graphic designer. I definitely run out of graphical ideas in this area!

[BluePlanet]

Lots of great advice and I agree. No point repeating it except to make a few points.

Any site that uses r-us other than a toy site, makes me barf. It screams unprofessional. It is kind of like the spammers who have these god awlful domain names. The only thing worse would be AAAA. This is not the yellow pages.

Any site that does not have a telephone number can kiss their business goodbye. I much prefer to see a street address too. All my sites have email, direct numbers, toll free 800 (and I only use 800, none of the other variations), and our address. We even give out an email address after a first contact that goes right to the CEO's Blackberry if there is any problem.

Besides all the issues, I think a big one is customer loyalty and repeat orders. Anyone else who might order is driven away by the other problems.

Having to register is also a big turnoff. I might well end up registering at a site if I think I might return to buy more, but any site that requires it or compels it can go drop dead.

[24SevenCart]

As Deepsand and Weedy Lady pointed out..."there is a call to action" in the old site!

That's most important.

[iany]

Back to basics here, I am afraid. The second site is no better than the first , and in many ways is a lot worse. Home page for an e-commerce site is very disappointing - no products, offers or call to action. I think you have missed the point all together. If the punters don't stick around on landing, then they ain't going to buy.

Let's face it, the new site is a competitor to the old site which probably already has a customer base. Why would they want to change? It would be more logical to change the domain to point at new site.

However, it just shows that doing things technically correct doesn't mean that a site is good. (In fact how can a site with as many mark up errors be doing it "By the book").

Maybe your attitude to original webmaster has got in the way of objective advice to your client. Indeed from where I sit the first guy has got it better.

Cheers

Ian

[webmarketinggroup]

Echoing many of the comments already made. The domain name is somewhat cheesy and would suggest re-building the existing domain if possible as it already has authority.

Re landing page of new website it is too white - make sure people know they are landing on an ecommerce site - promote key products/offers on the landing page but make the site's security issues prominent elsewhere as these are of interest but should not dominate the landing page.

Your top right hand is a little empty - make calls to action more prominent and drive people to make a decision if poss try and promote a different product on each page in this location.

[villageloop]

Everyone here is analyzing the traffic, he said he is getting 800 visitors a day before and now, PPC or natural ... traffic should be relatively comparable.

Not sure who told you the new site looks better but it does not function better. Guarantee huge abandon rate. Add to cart uses the Amazon function where the cart follows you on the right side of the screen.

New cart is requiring login and if you dont have one, then you need to click another button to create one. Old cart, you have your choice right up front with no more clicks.

The new site there is nothing drawing your attention when you get there ... at least the old one draws your attention.

I bet the abandon rate is sky high on the new site ... Add To Cart take them to the cart (especially for an unknown site like this). Option for new account or just checkout should be on the same page, no additional clicks.

3 Clicks
1. add to cart
2. checkout
3. submit

You have too many clicks in your checkout process. Just a quick analysis.

Arthur

The first one to say it. And probabaly your biggest issue with conversions.

You have too many clicks in your checkout process.
also
New cart is requiring login

These are huge!

When focusing on goal oriented results (and particularly sales conversions) user centric design is much more important than graphic design. If your focus is on Branding, then graphics and imagery can play a larger role.

[Risky_Fire]

I don't think that the second site is much different from the first. You said traffic for the seconds site was via ppc is this also true for the first site? or does the traffic come here via different sources.

[Rhys]

I just went to the first pages:

To me the first site is much more attractive, and is filled with useful information about the products. It also gives a location, (warehouse open to public), hours, phone number, and email which would give the customer confidence that the company isn't a fly-by-night outfit operating out of someone's kitchen.

It also feels comfortable, like a local mom & pop store would. They give the impression that friendly service is available for the asking.

It gives the customer an immediate rough idea of what the shipping costs might be. The customer service button at the top of the page is a nice touch.

The second site has too much blank space and most of the information is about shipping, not the products. The security info is clutter - the RapidSSL logo at the bottom is sufficient. Most customers just want to know the transaction is secured - they don't know about or understand the specifics.

There is nothing about the company. Who am I dealing with?

The second page also seemed to load slower than the first, but I didn't actually time them.

I agree with others here about the name Viva Low Carb Superstore is much better than LowCarb-R-Us.


Personally, when I shop online my first concern (using dial-up) is that the pages load fast and I don't have to go get a cup of coffee while the fancy graphics load. Both these sites seem O.K. in that regard. My second concern is easy search for what I want. My third concern is that the shopping cart is simple and doesn't require me to set up an account (though I will later if I am satisfied with the product and it is likely I will come back and buy repeatedly. I also want to at least have a rough idea what the shipping costs will be before I reach the checkout. Sometimes the product is cheaper locally even with sales tax if the shipping is too high.

[BoothWizard]

Wow, great thread and lots of great comments!
I just looked at both home pages and didn't even try ordering. Here is my impression.
The first website looks fine to me, and from what the people above say, the ordering process is EASY.
The second website looks a bit spammy. Sorry, by honesty is usually best.
On the first website I see a physical store address right away and feel like this is a brick and mortar place that also sells online.
On the second website it looks like a reseller site that was thrown together... I don't know if I should really trust it.
And without immediate trust and confidence, people will click away.
Anyway, thanks for sharing this because I think many people can learn a lot from your examples!
And don't give up. There is lots of good advice above. :)

[itpixels]

I do agree to most of the comments here..The second site is a bit lifeless, you need to add some elements that would entice customers to buy or at least to click something. Most people won't care about 128bit SSL especially non-tech ones... It would rather entice people if they will see something like, good customer support or how about some testimonials from customers...

You can also analyze clickmap on both sites to know how visitors behave, google analytics has clickmap feature and it seems that both sites has google analytics on it so you might want to check it out.

[CET]

If it isn't a silly question can't you redevelop the original domain
After all your client owns it , not the bum "webmaster"
If that is the domain with client loyalty and traffic, it would seem to be the only and correct solution.

Plus Lowcarbs-r-us sounds so SPAMMY
VivaLowCarb at least sound CLASSY

That's the problem, the webmaster owns the domain, so they're stuck with him. They thought it was a good deal at the time to get into bed with him and do a profit-share. Now they're basically stuck with him. This whole thing is supposed to be under the radar, because they're afraid the webmaster could get pissy and shut down the site, which would put them out of business.

I know it sounds kind of like a soap opera, but that's where we're at.

I agree about the domain, I would have never picked it out. Do you think it's related to conversion?

[CET]

Just a few (lengthy) thoughts.

Yes, customers might be loyal to the other site, and that's a big issue. Essentially, you set up a competitor to her old site.

Also, I realize people said that the new site looked better, but from my perspective, there are a couple problems. The colors of the old logo look like the Italian flag - as in, "great, tasty food" and the new logo looks like a pill - as in, "low carb foods may not be fun, but they're good medicine."

The links on the left look much better, and hooray for your getting rid of the un-helpful exclamations like "this is great!"

I think the colors should have been pumped up on the new site. The milder green is a bit poopy, compared to the old site's happy green. Also, the food packages image on the old site was more dynamic, and more appealing. Try a somewhat less linear and boxed-in image of the food packages.

I don't know why the site isn't converting as well, except that it still feels a little flat. Gives me the image of a dicey supplier, for some reason, despite the nicer links down the left side.

Perhaps a more sweeping decoration across the top would help. I saw an article on site design, which said most sites are designed to appeal to a male sensibility - square shapes, linear layout. With a low-carb food site, you have to appeal to a woman who's into good food, and hoping to cheat the calories. Try a more "Jenny Craig" approach, maybe add a photo of a healthy (but not stringy) woman, and it might convey the confidence that customers need to see in order to feel like purchasing. Right now, I'm not "feelin' the love" for the layout. It's getting there, but not quite yet.

I'm speaking strictly from an advertising perspective, as that's what I do for most of my day. So that's the context for the above.

Best of luck with this - I know how frustrating these things can be...
:)

Wow, great stuff! I sent many of your suggestions to my client. :D

[CET]

Hi Chris,

I think you will need to get more specific. If you have a good Analytics program running, you should be able to see where the problems are appearing. It is from visitors coming to the homepage, product pages, are people leaving during the cart process?

I run analytics on all my client's site and what kind of data you get from there can usually lead you to the problem.

I see you are using Magento (good choice). Couple things I would recommend:

1/ When you add an item to the cart, direct the user to the shopping cart. Sometimes visitors don't get that it was added. The other site does this.

2/ You are making them register. Give them the option of checking out as a guest. It's easy to do this in Magento. The other site doesn't do this either, but it's checkout process is different.

3/ They don't get to see the shipping charge until further in checkout. Possibly give them and idea beforehand. The other site offers flat rate shipping.

Hope that helps.

Vetofunk

Yes, I run analytics. There is no cart abandonment. It's possible that since the "add to cart" didn't redirect, that I was not getting a conversion while there were items in the cart. For that reason more than any other reason, I changed the site so that "add to cart" now redirects to the shopping cart. If there is abandonment, that'll help me figure it out.

I had been doing some reconsideration on the guest check out thing. I'll send it to the client to see if she's willing to do that. Think is, I can't think of any ecommerce site that offers guest checkout though. Do you really think that'll make a difference?

The flat rate shipping thing is REALLY complicated, even though it sounds simple. The old site had to write some complicated and weird code and shipping policies to work around a lot of stuff. Large items, bread items, frozen items, too many items for a single box, etc. We found it far more simple and cheaper to just offer "regular" shipping.

[CET]

Great stuff all around, thanks! :D

Here's the letter I'm sending to my client:


Hi (client name removed),

I submitted LCrU to a community of internet designers and marketers for peer reviewing. A lot of what came back was very interesting.


No products on the front page
Colors are lifeless
No pictures of happy people
Clicking "Add to Cart" does not take visitor to the cart
Logo vaguely resembles a pill, which may suggest that low carb food is medicine and not enjoyable. The old site had a happy Italian flag, a nation famous for making and loving great food.
The domain looks "spammy"
No visible phone number
Why do they have to create an account before buying?

Personally, I found these all to be great points and would like to get to work on them as soon as possible.



Cheers,

Chris

[Kaizer]

This is a very good thread. I have the same problem, but I run affiliate sites rather than stores.

In the case of this 2 sites subject to this thread, I noticed that the old one lists the products 3 in a row while the new one lists one product in a row.

The old site gives visitors multiple choice in front of them without much scrolling down which is better in term of conversion.

[deepsand]

That's the problem, the webmaster owns the domain, so they're stuck with him.
While the webmaster may be the Owner of Record for the moment, that can be remedied.

All Registrars of good repute have established procedures for the true owner's claiming such.

[claybutler]

Actually, though the webmaster could theoretically "shut you down" they would expose themselves to civil penalties as well as criminal punishment. Civil in the sense that just because you are part owner doesn't give you the right to hurt the business. That will cost you dearly in civil court. Criminally, if there is any attempt at extortion, he could go to jail for a long time. Your client has a lot more power than they think. I would start the procedure secure the the domain right away as well as have a remote backup of the entire site including the database. Once you have that, you're pretty much golden and can deal with the other webmaster from a point of strength rather than fear.

[CET]

Actually, though the webmaster could theoretically "shut you down" they would expose themselves to civil penalties as well as criminal punishment. Civil in the sense that just because you are part owner doesn't give you the right to hurt the business. That will cost you dearly in civil court. Criminally, if there is any attempt at extortion, he could go to jail for a long time. Your client has a lot more power than they think. I would start the procedure secure the the domain right away as well as have a remote backup of the entire site including the database. Once you have that, you're pretty much golden and can deal with the other webmaster from a point of strength rather than fear.

I'll definitely bring it up, thanks! :D

The webmaster now lives in Canada while my client lives in L.A., so I don't know how much that complicates things. Also, the webmaster won't allow anyone to access the source code or DB, so I'm not sure how we can get around that.

As an aside, I worked on the site design a bit and came up with this. The clients really wants to keep the products banner and logo. I was given free reign on most everything else.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/auciker/Web%20Dev/lowcarbrus1.jpg

[deepsand]

The webmaster now lives in Canada while my client lives in L.A., so I don't know how much that complicates things. Also, the webmaster won't allow anyone to access the source code or DB, so I'm not sure how we can get around that.
Where the webmaster is located is of no import, as the Registrar will rely on documentation from the party claiming rightful ownership to make its decision.

I've been through this with a client of mine. All that was required was a written statement from the rightful owner, on company letterhead, along with proof of ID. Once you've obtained control of the Registration, you're in a position to move toward gaining access to the hosted files. Of course, if you need any documentation from the current webmaster, the only way to compel release of such is via a civil suit.

[dangdatkat]

I like the pagination at the top of the old site.

The new site has subcategories with fewer products. I think people like the categories with more products in them. It means you don't have to click in, view 6 products, then back out and choose again.

I would get rid of the filtering options at the top of the page.

JP

[mays]

This is a very good thread. I have the same problem, but I run affiliate sites rather than stores.

In the case of this 2 sites subject to this thread, I noticed that the old one lists the products 3 in a row while the new one lists one product in a row.

The old site gives visitors multiple choice in front of them without much scrolling down which is better in term of conversion.

Exactly what I said in my earlier post. :D

[ramorius]

It might be the source of the traffic. I found that PPC traffic had very low conversion rate. Once I dropped PPC traffic, my conversion rate jumped 10x, I had a significant drop in traffic, but only a minor drop in conversions per month. The conclusion I drew was that I was paying for "worthless traffic" - that all of my paying customers were coming from natural SEO.

Good luck!
Rob

[techmaniac]

The first site doesn't POP at all. It's flat with no dimension and the navigation/design lead me to believe that cousin Merl who fixes computers as a hobby designed it a la 1996. I'm also not quite sure of those commenting on the phone #. I saw it immediately on the second site in the upper right hand corner, and again at the bottom.

I'm not sure on the conversion front, but your best bet is to look into your analytics for answers. You need to see where people are dropping off. It may be as simple as the login first concern another poster spoke of.

You should try and incorporate more of the old sites logo design. As someone mentioned, the rounded button gives the wrong image to visitors.

[Rhys]

I had been doing some reconsideration on the guest check out thing. I'll send it to the client to see if she's willing to do that. Think is, I can't think of any ecommerce site that offers guest checkout though. Do you really think that'll make a difference?



Guest checkout?

Barnes and Noble

Most others ask you to create an account, mostly so they can get your email to send you advertisements.

[CET]

Guest checkout?

Barnes and Noble

Most others ask you to create an account, mostly so they can get your email to send you advertisements.

I asked her about guest checkout, and she said "no". Reason being, she originally offered guest checkout on her old site. Often customers wanted to repeat a previous order, but had forgotten that they had checked out as "guest", so there was no order history to repeat. This ended up creating weird situations where they have to prove to the customers that they're wrong, which isn't a good business practice.

On the upside, I added a phone number, a few products to the front page, and had "add to cart" redirect to the shopping cart. Now I can track cart abandonment and we got 2 sales that same day! Thanks all for the help so far! :D

[deepsand]

The first site doesn't POP at all. It's flat with no dimension and the navigation/design lead me to believe that cousin Merl who fixes computers as a hobby designed it a la 1996.
Most users don't really give a rat's a** about a site looking "now," or "cool," or "happening." What they do care about is simplicity, absence of visual clutter, and functionality; i.e., usability.

One is well advised to heed the maxim that "form follows function."

I'm also not quite sure of those commenting on the phone #. I saw it immediately on the second site in the upper right hand corner, and again at the bottom.
The OP added such after this thread had begun.

[namebutler]

One other possible thing is that the old site lists a physical store address on the home page. That could build some "trust" in potential customers.

[itpixels]

Oh by the way, i must add that adding some best seller items in your home page can add curiosity for your site visitors to try those products... and why stick for static images in your homepage if you can add some interactive contents such as slide show of new products or highly recommended stuff... a little javascript won't hurt...

[deepsand]

... and why stick for static images in your homepage if you can add some interactive contents such as slide show of new products or highly recommended stuff...
The increased visual clutter and/or the increased consumption of local resources could cause that to back-fire. Such changes should be tested before being rolled out.


a little javascript won't hurt...
Toward what end? :confused:

[dangdatkat]

I think a scrolling javascript banner would be really cool. Or since its winter, javascript snowflakes falling from the top of the browser or a trail of snowflakes that follow your cursor.

Don't be afraid of frames either. Users and search engines love frames.

[techmaniac]

I don't think you need to offer a guest checkout, but you shouldn't require them to register until they are ready to checkout.


Most users don't really give a rat's a** about a site looking "now," or "cool," or "happening." What they do care about is simplicity, absence of visual clutter, and functionality; i.e., usability.

Now, cool and happening are usually things that will doom a website, unless it's a microsite. What I'm referring to is credibility: if it looks like a small, cheap ma-n-pa site I'm not going to enter further than necessary. The first site gives me (and the other three members of my Marketing dept.) a less than credible feeling that I'll get what I ordered and not have my card number scrapped from their site.

[deepsand]

I think a scrolling javascript banner would be really cool. Or since its winter, javascript snowflakes falling from the top of the browser or a trail of snowflakes that follow your cursor.
To repeat, the increased visual clutter and/or the increased consumption of local resources could cause that to back-fire. Such changes should be tested before being rolled out.


Users and search engines love frames.
:confused: :confused: :confused:

Proof, please.

[deepsand]

Now, cool and happening are usually things that will doom a website, unless it's a microsite. What I'm referring to is credibility: if it looks like a small, cheap ma-n-pa site I'm not going to enter further than necessary.
Well, the small, Ma & Pa look resonates with those many buyers who have an inate distrust of suits!

[Bernd]

... which looks WAY better than her current site. Indeed?
Do you great artist know what margin and padding is?
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1918/lowcarb.png (http://img148.imageshack.us/i/lowcarb.png/)

[CET]

Indeed?
Do you great artist know what margin and padding is?
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1918/lowcarb.png (http://img148.imageshack.us/i/lowcarb.png/)

OMFG, there's no margin next to the thumbnail, worst design ever!! Go troll elsewhere. :roll:

[deepsand]

Well, it should be noted that such does in fact very much interfere with the eye/brain scanning system, by way of eliminating the stop band at the left of the text, thus causing over-shoot, which both slows the reading process and increases eye muscle fatigue.

While old-time typesetters may not have understood the physiology of reading, they did indeed know a lot about readability.

[byronc]

geez this is an awesome thread!!!! learnt more here in 20 mins than hours surfing the net!

[mjtaylor]

geez this is an awesome thread!!!! learnt more here in 20 mins than hours surfing the net!


Welcome! Would you please tell me what you learned, Byron?

[byronc]

r u serious?

[deepsand]

Yes, I do believe that she is serious.

BTW, you're likely to be taken as being more credible and sincere if you avoid texting style shortcuts, as not all here employ or are otherwise familiar with all of such.

"Are you serious" would be the more appropriate.

[byronc]

BTW, you're likely to be taken as being more credible and sincere if you avoid texting style shortcuts, as not all here employ or are otherwise familiar with all of such.

"Are you serious" would be the more appropriate.

lmao :D

define pompous and self righteous for me?

[deepsand]

If you really require said definitions, I suggest that you look them up for yourself.

And, while at it, check out "arrogant," "boorish," "churlish," "loutish," and "obnoxious." :rolleyes:

[mjtaylor]

Oh, dear, I do seem to be on a roll with challenges this week.

Byron, yes, I was serious. I did, indeed, take your post as a throwaway, possibly just for count. I did wonder if you were being disingenuous, so I asked what you learned. By your outrage, I see that you are offended, and I am sorry. You felt distrusted. I beg your pardon on that count.

I'm not sure that makes it okay to be rude to anyone though.

[deepsand]

Furthermore, knowing what someone has learned, as opposed to merely knowing that they learned something can be useful information.

As for comportment, a simple "why do you ask" would have both sufficed and given no offense. I, for one, give much more import to how one addresses others than I do to the factual accuracy of that of which they speak. I.e., civility trumps correctness.

[byronc]

I was genuinely happy mj as I am trying to get into the whole online marketing thing and found a few good threads. I also might like to add that at the time, I had not even filled in my profile. let alone sig (may I say thing? or will I offend above gent?)

[villageloop]

I would try the test, but be careful how you do the redirect. You don't want to incur a duplicate content penalty.
Also, I assume you are using Adwords for your traffic, which you can then just setup the campaigns to the new domains and you shouldn't incur a big hit overall.

Other than that, the main concern would be your brand. It looks like you will have to re-brand completely to remove the "sex" from your domain.

Setup the site on the new domain and make sure to do proper 301 redirects from the old site to the new one. The only problem with the new domain is that it does not specify your product at all (at least your current one does... even if it could be misinterpreted). Maybe do some more domain searching.

[teamonfuego]

Villageloop - thanks for the quick reply. How would it be possible to not incur a duplicate content penalty if you're doing a redirect?

Do you know if there is anything wrong we're doing on Sexy Furnishings that could be killing our conversion rate? If it's nothing out of the usual then we're thinking our problem could be caused by:
1.) our site could be blocked by corporate servers
2.) our email marketing could be thrown into the spam boxes because of the word sexy in it
3.) customers could be drawn away from buying from a company with the word sexy in it

As far as the new domain not having furniture/furnishings in it...a lot of our competitors also don't, like InMod, 2bModern, Spacify, RoomandBoard, West Elm, Design within Reach, etc...

[villageloop]

As long as you do a redirect (properly using 301) then it will not be duplicate content. But if you were considering doing some A/B testing and running both concurrently, that could possibly cause an issue.
I dont see anything obvious wrong with your design or your cart (volusion does a fine job).
As for your quesitons:
1. You could be blocked by corporate servers - do you know if your customers are shopping from work?
2. Email marketing is another issue all together and completely separate from this issue. You were focusing on converting the 500-600 visitors. - But yes spam filters could lower your open rates in your email campaigns
3. I think if they have made it to your site and are viewing it, the word in the domain at that point shouldnt influence the purchase decision.

I would dig deeply into your analytics and find out who your visitors are, what are your main traffic sources, where are they bouncing off your site, etc...
Maybe your traffic is coming from an irrelevant source?
Do you have landing pages setup? Are these pages converting better than others?

Lastly, I do not know anything about your industry but it looks like your prices are not in the budget range. You are not a discount outlet. What is your edge over your competition? What kind of sales volume is normal for your industry and your products online?

[deepsand]

I was genuinely happy mj as I am trying to get into the whole online marketing thing and found a few good threads. I also might like to add that at the time, I had not even filled in my profile. let alone sig (may I say thing? or will I offend above gent?)
If you mean to ask if it's okay to abbreviate Signature Line to Sig., given that such is common here, and that the rest of your post puts such usage in a clear context, then, yes, it's okay.

Also acceptable are those abbreviations which are commonly used across many boards, such as LOL, ROTF, LMAO, ROTFLMAO, IMO, IMHO, FWIW, etc.. What should be avoided are those which are frequently used when texting, but not generally used elsewhere. For those who do not actively text, they quite prone to being not understood or misunderstood.

Also, the proper use of upper/lower case greatly improves readability, as the eye/brain system that scans the written word uses uppercase characters as one of several "stops," or "breakpoints" to signal the end/beginning of sentences and paragraphs. In the absence of such stops, the eye over-scans, and, once the brain detects such, is then backed up for a re-scan. Not only does this slow the reading process , but it also increases eye muscle fatigue.

[dangdatkat]

I have a 1680x1050 monitor and the checkout button is below the fold.

Have you setup the sales funnel>goal in your analytics program? Are people exiting the site in one spot on the cart?

http://imgur.com/JKhxh.png

[teamonfuego]

"I have a 1680x1050 monitor and the checkout button is below the fold.

Have you setup the sales funnel>goal in your analytics program? Are people exiting the site in one spot on the cart?"

I see what you're saying. Unfortunately there is no way for us to change this around. I doubt this is having that big of an impact on our conversion rate because it is standard across the thousands of sites that Volusion hosts.

I honestly don't know how to set up a sales funnel > goal in analytics. We have analytics installed and I see that our total site-wide bounce rate is over 45%, which seems kind of high, right?